Ryan's thoughts on gaming and other things

Elrohir!

Fantasy Flight has put out their third article tied to Redhorn Gate, this one about hero roles. I have to admit this is probably the best article they have written on the game yet. I had some idea of the heroes playing different roles in this game already, but the functions in this game are so different from most other more conventional fantasy dungeon crawl style games. Traditionally you have Tank-Healer-DPS or Melee-Ranged-Magic, etc. Fantasy Flight’s breakdown of their own heroes is interesting and shows how much more depth this game can have. Though I don’t like the choice of terms “Healer” and “Archer”, I would have chosen “Support” and “Striker” to be more generic.

Finally they release the new hero and it’s awesome. I’ve wanted Elrond’s sons in the game for a while and figured with the new elven focus in Redhorn Gate that we would finally see them, but I wasn’t sure if they would be heroes or not. I also hoped they would have a strong synergy that would encourage players to keep them together but wasn’t sure if they would implement that or not either.

Thankfully, it looks like they have chosen to do both! Elrohir is a Leadership hero and recieves a substantial buff to his defense while Elladan is in play. In fact his base states are 1 lower than his cost without the buff but one higher with the buff, so they will likely be a very powerful pair. Elrohir is clearly meant to fulfill a tank type role though his 2 willpower is nothing to scoff at either. His keywords of Ranger and Noble are meaningless so far, but Noldor looks like it will be getting some support in this cycle.

It’s unknown whether Elladan will be a hero, what sphere he will be, and how long we have to wait to see him. Hopefully he will be a Tactics sphere hero and we will see him in the next adventure pack.

Elrohir’s card art is done by the superb Magali Villeneuve, who has an incredible knack for creating beautiful elves while still staying anchored to the reality of Tolkien’s vision. She is quickly becoming my favorite game artist. Check out the full art at her portfolio website. She is selling 8×11 glossy prints of some of her works and I’m actually tempted; I particularly like the full art for Elfhelm.